Re: effects of identifier checking

Colin Paul Adams wrote:

> In what way - the identifiers are still all the same, so how can
> having more make the situation more messy?

I use capitalisation as a visual cue when reading source code, just  
as I do when reading English sentences. This sentence is an example.  
It helps me read the code faster.

In this respect, capitalisation is like indentation. Indentation  
helps me see the structure of the code at a glance, without having to  
read it. For this reason, I have some sympathy with the approach  
taken by Python, in which indentation is significant to the language;  
and I get frustrated by those rare cases in which Eiffel compilers  
cannot understand code whose meaning is plain to a human reader to  
whom indentation and newlines are significant.

But I'd be surprised if SmartEiffel continues the trend set by its  
Smalltalk-ish capitalisation rules by adopting Python-ish indentation  
rules. I'm not convinced that changing the language is the best way  
to enforce these aspects of coding standards. And I certainly dislike  
the fact that SmartEiffel is no longer Eiffel.

- Peter Gummer